


Help

by Murkury_Writes



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: A/B/O, AND...., Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Fear, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Malnutrition, Mating Cycles/In Heat, NSFW, Naughty language, Omegaverse, Panic Attacks, Physical Abuse, Psychological mistreatment, Starvation, This poor man can’t get a break, Yea there prob will be smut, past relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-27 01:48:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20399671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murkury_Writes/pseuds/Murkury_Writes
Summary: As soon as Hank walked into the interrogation room he was bombarded with the horrific smell of the pheromones you were giving off. The scent of an omega in distress was terribly evident in the air, the whole room reeked. It was so strong, Hank was surprised he couldn’t smell it from the outside of the room anywhere else around the DPD. The smell on its own was concerning, but your whole situation must’ve been really bad if all of this was coming from just you. Usually, it took several omegas to make a room like this smell this strong.





	1. Meet and Greet

“Where the fuck are you?!”

Your legs throbbed as you held them close to your chest. On the floor inside the closet, you were hiding under used shirts and pants that smelled like your alpha. It was too dark to see the fresh bruise blooming onto your skin. It was too hot under all of the fabric to breathe. Hot tears ran down your face. You were too scared to even think of what to do next as you hid under all of the heavy clothing in the dark little room.

“Where are you?” In the other room you could hear a vase or a glass of some sort shatter, sending you into another fit of shakes. He was angry like this in the past but nothing came close to this. Thumping footsteps came walking up to the door of the room and shortly after the door was slammed open. Through the bottom of the door you could smell how angry he was. It smelt like something burned, rotten food, just something dirty and covered in filth. _He was angry. Your alpha was very angry._

In slow long strides you could hear him coming closer throughout the house. Tremores wracked you entire body as you curled into yourself, trying to make yourself smaller. 

“When I find you, I swear to god!-“He was cut off by a harsh few knocks at the door. A silence seemed to settle into the atmosphere of the room for a moment and the knocking comes again. This time it's followed by a booming voice,”Detroit police, open up!”

“Shit…” The man in front of the closet seemed to stagger where he stood for a moment. You half expected for him to tear the closet door off the hinges to find you right then and there, but the audible sound of footsteps leaving the room let you catch your breath. At least while he was gone for the time being you could try to breath and calm yourself down just a little. 

Just as you tried to breathe, your lungs involuntarily gasped for air. A sudden pressure welled up inside of your chest painfully. Hit after hit, It felt like you were being struck over and over in the head with an aluminum bat. All of the air that you tried to take in felt like it was missing, that was when you blacked out.

———————————————————

As soon as Hank walked into the interrogation room he was bombarded with the horrific smell of the pheromones you were giving off. The scent of an omega in distress was terribly evident in the air, the whole room reeked. It was so strong, Hank was surprised he couldn’t smell it from the outside of the room anywhere else around the DPD. The smell on its own was concerning, but your whole situation must’ve been really bad if all of this was coming from just you. Usually, it took several omegas to make a room like this smell this strong.

In the metal chair where you sat he could physically see you shaking like some freezing animal. Dark tired eyes didn’t move from your hands on your lap, afraid of trouble. Passionate bruises littered pieces of your skin that he could and couldn’t see. Bits of blood stained the clothes you were wearing, and you both knew it wasn’t from your alpha. 

Seeing you like that hurt him, and he didn’t even know you. He just hated to think about what that prick did to you. Slowly and thoughtfully, he approached the metal table you were at, gently setting down some used clothes and a brown paper bag he was holding down beside it. He found that it was usually a lot more easy to deal with abuse cases after the other person in question had some positive association with him before they even interacted. Food was a good icebreaker, you must’ve been hungry and it would give you a good first impression. When he was a rookie he learned early on how different it was working with omegas rather than alphas. 

“This is from the deli across the street, thought you might be hungry.“ He said as he pulled up the other chair to sit with you. “I-Uh, also brought you some clothes. I figured you wouldn’t want to wear something that smelled like that house.” It was a nice open gesture towards you, more kindness than you’ve seen in years. 

“Thank you alpha.” You said with your eyes fixed down. Hank flushed at that. Nobody’s called him that in a very long time, the title threw him off guard. Alpha was a name usually only couples used with each other and in rare occasions, or the title a kid would give a parent they trusted. 

“Uh- You don’t have to call me that kid.” Hurt eyes shot up at him. Had you stepped out of line? He was an alpha, and that was the title you were taught to call alphas. 

“What would you like me to call you, alpha?” You said as you started to looked longingly at the food. 

“My name is Hank but, if you want, you can call me sir if you really want to.” He scratched at the back of his neck nervously. 

“Yes, sir.” You complied very quickly, too quickly for the situation to be considered comfortable. The atmosphere that soaked the room was tense. You weren’t completely sure what to do with yourself besides change. So without further prompting you started to change into the new set of clothes that were laid out. 

“Ah- Jesus kid!” He got out of his seat and turned around, not facing you as he yelled at the wall. “Give a guy a warning next time, would ya?!” 

“I’m sorry, sir.” Not even looking at you, he could hear how apologetic you sounded. You weren’t even sure what he was yelling at you about but, obviously you did something wrong whether you knew what it was or not. Hearing your quiet apology sure sounded a lot more like a plea. You were scared, maybe he was being too hard on you… 

You winced out loud as you slipped on the sweatshirt, it ran against the fresh bruising on your right side. Hank turned a glimpse over his shoulder at the sound but quickly turned back away to give you some sense of privacy. 

Immediately you were enveloped in a very foreign scent. Something like expensive wood, old scotch, apple pie and something you couldn't make out was completely surrounding you. All of it was warm, and comforting. Somehow, you just craved more of it. 

“Hey, you done changing kid?” Although it was a good change, to have some different smell around you it was welcomed, it was overwhelming. “Y-Yes, Sir.” 

Before you knew what you were doing, you buried you face into one of the sleeves and took a deep inhale. You couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh at the feeling of something different, something safe. When he turned around to see what you were doing, it shocked him. 

He didn’t quite understand for a second, hell you didn’t even understand what you were doing. It took him a couple seconds for him to finally understand that you were scenting his sweatshirt. Softly brushing and pushing your face in the worn material like it was the best thing in the world. 

While many omegas did scent things, they usually only did things like that with alphas they knew and were very familiar with for well over a few months, maybe years. Maybe you were scenting his clothing to calm down? It wouldn’t be too far of a stretch for an omega in your situation to be doing something like that. 

Everything was so strong as far as scent went right now because you were so sensitive. This sweatshirt was the first thing you were being exposed to that wasn’t related at all to your alpha or that awful house you were living in. You were all too focused on smelling and rubbing your face against the shirt, you didn’t even notice that Hank sat back at the table. 

5 minutes passed before you thought to eat the food he brought. Hesitantly, you faced him but looked down at the metallic table waiting for permission. You wouldn’t dare bring the paper bag towards yourself. He was attentive enough to notice and pushed the bag to be almost directly in front of you. Opening it up revealed a paper wrapped sandwich. You couldn’t help basking in the smell from the bag before briskly taking it out. “A-Am I allowed to eat, sir?” 

“Yeah, I got the food for you.” He stated the blatant fact sympathetically. While you started to eat Hank started to explain what happened. This was the first time you’ve met an alpha like him. He was nice, his voice was nice too, you already trusted him more than you ever trusted your alpha. 

“The neighbor next to you called about a noise complaint.” He said not looking at you. “Said he heard yelling and some glass being broken. Turns out, I was sent up there with my partner to just check everything was alright because we were in the area.” He explained what happened after he showed up, and when they found you overheating in the closet after you fainted. He seemed relaxed, his voice was nice and comforting as he told you what happened, soothing you to such a point where you felt yourself drifting off quickly. 

“You alright?” His question jarred you out of your drowsy state. “It looks like you’re falling asleep… “ 

“Sir,” you had a question in the back of your mind that kept bugging you.”Am I- Am I going to prison?” You had to know. 

“No?” He furrowed his brow, as you let out a breath of air you didn’t know you were holding. “Why would you think that?” He asked quietly, almost as if to avoid others hearing the words leave his mouth. Like it was going to be some secret even if you did tell him what it was you were concerned about. 

“I’m not sure, sir.” You said. “I’m not sure.” You didn't need a reason to feel guilt, it came so abruptly that you couldn’t explain it. Silence soaked the room while Hank tried to think the best thing to say next. With the DPD starting to get packed over Christmas, more than likely they wouldn’t be able to house you there. And Hank knew it wouldn’t exactly be ideal for you to stay with other people right now, out of sheer understanding that recovery would be more difficult.

“Do uh- You have any contacts?” He followed up trying to lighten the mood. Anything had to be better than this god awful silence. 

“I don’t understand the question, Sir..”

“Contacts? People you can call and stay with while this whole thing blows over?” 

“N-No sir.” You absentmindedly started to play with the ends of the sweatshirt sleeve you were scenting. 

“Damn…” He sighed under his breath. That was shitty. The silence was a little better than this. “So, you don’t have anywhere kid?” 

“No, sir.” You repeated shakily. 

“Well, the DPD is going to be pretty packed for the rest of this month. Deviants and christmas coming up ya know?” A nervous smile barely reached his face. Huh. You didn’t even know it was Christmas but, that just raised another question that you were yet afraid to ask. 

“Sir?...” He looked at you, waiting for you to continue.”What year is it?” 

That blew his previous questions out of the water. He could feel his heart drop when you asked. Was it really bad to a point where you didn’t know the fucking year? 

“It’s uh- 2038, December 15th.” 

“Oh.” you said quietly. He looked more concerned than anything, you looked like you where having the beginning of a mental breakdown. 

“It’s been four years…” You mumbled. “I’ve been stuck in that house for four years.” Your arm raised to your face to wipe at the stray tears for some room to see. 

“Jesus Christ, kid.” He was mortified hearing that answer. God, and your crying? The way you were letting out choked laughing between sobs was making everything worse. “Well, if you want, I could ask around. See if anyone is willing to let you stay with them for the time being until-“ 

“No- Please no!” The drastic reaction you had caught him completely off guard. “I don’t want to go with another alpha. Please, Sir!” Abruptly you rushed to his side on your knees. 

“Hey! Wait a second!-“ He was cut off as your arms loosely engulfed him and wrapped around his side. You where on your knees crying so hard, tears started to soak his jacket. 

“Please alpha! Don’t send me away-“ You sobbed and pleaded into his shirt. Hank wasn’t quite sure what to do. This was the first time he had an omega come onto him like this. He didn’t even realize he was being scented by you. Without either of you realizing it, you were rubbing your wrist onto the jacket he was wearing. Some distant part of you that could only be described as desperate instinct knew what you were doing. You were trying to mark him as your alpha and, neither of you were noticing it. All he wanted to do was calm you down from your panic. 

“Alright! Alright! Would you calm down for Christ sake!” Still, you didn’t relent. “Look, we’ll figure something else out ok?” He brushed your hair out of your face with his hand, careful not to touch you too much. 

“Ok, alpha.” You mumbled into his side. He looked down at you. It looked like you were having some sort of episode. Your eyes were glazed over, looking out of focus. You were terrified, without a doubt. 

It made his blood boil just thinking about the prick that did this to you. What kind of shitty alpha would do this to their omega? The shitty guy who beat you should be dead. He put his thoughts about that aside for now. The last thing he knew you needed was the smell of an angry alphas pheromones. 

Right now he had to think for the both of you. If he decided to just push you off of him right now and send someone else in here it would probably do more damage than good. It could lead to a major drawback with all of the progress he had with you today. 

“We can’t just keep you here and I doubt you would want to be sent to some homeless shelter.” His stomach turned at the mere idea of some random alpha taking advantage of you but he also knew it was unlikely you’d be comfortable shacking up with some random alpha. 

“I’m not exactly sure where the DPD is gonna is gonna send you.” He said as he did his best to keep his hands off you.” Are you sure you don’t have anywhere you can go?” 

“I just want to be safe alpha. Please, just keep me safe alpha.” He felt wrong having you to call him that. Still stuck in that same trance, your arms tightened around him. 

“You can stay with me for the time being. At least until we can get you back on your feet…” He knew there was no reasoning with you, not when you were stuck like this. At home he could keep a close eye on you and help take care of you. “Does that sound alright?” 

You nodded your head against him as you finally started to calm down. “Thank you, alpha.” 

The silence flooded the room one again. The other half of the sandwich he brought laid long forgotten on the table. 

———————————————————

Hank thought for sure that being stuck in that interrogation room was going to be the worst of it. He was wrong. 

White walls and bright light flooded your vision. He decided to take you to the doctors regardless how exhausted you were. It was for the sake of your health to get supplement prescriptions, and to get a professional opinion on how to take care of you. Dealing with a new member of a household looked hard at face value but an abuse victim? That was a whole other ordeal. 

“Sir?” You asked as you were stiffly sitting next to him playing with the sleeve ends of the hoodie he gave you. 

“Hmm? What’s up?” 

“Please don’t let them touch me.” Even after he was going through all this hassle to try and keep you calm and look after your health, you were still afraid of another alpha touching you. This whole place didn’t put you at ease at all either. 

“Well, their going to have to take a look at you but I’ll make sure they keep the touching to a minimum, ok?” You didn’t reply. How could you? He was your alpha and he wasn’t going to stop them from laying their hands all over you. If this was how he was going to protect you then, how different would he be from your previous alpha? 

Your train of thought was interrupted at the sound of the jingle of the door handle. Within the second you fumbled for Hanks hand. A man in scrubs and a white coat walked in holding a clipboard with papers attached entered the room. Your grip tightened. 

“Hank Anderson?” He eyed the clipboard before asking. “We haven't seen you for well over a year. What seems to be the problem?” 

“Actually, we’re just here to get a check up for her.” He said with a low frustrated tone. 

“Oh! Sorry! The appointment was under your name, I just assumed-“ Hank cut him off before he could finish his sentence. He was tired of waiting for over an hour for this guy to show up. 

“It’s fine. Just, no touching.” He slung an arm around your waist loosely. The statement was a clear warning that touching you at all was not up for discussion. 

“O-Ok.” He stammered. In other words he got the message. “We can work around that.” 

Under your breath you turned to Hank and mumbled a thank you. Previous doubts were put to rest. Maybe, he wasn’t so much like your old alpha. He made you feel safe and that was worth more than the world right now to you. 

The doctor maneuvered around the room to a small desk with a small computer hooked up to a wall and set his clipboard down. Opening the desk drawers, he pulled out and looked through a few papers until he found what he was looking for. Hank informed him context of what was going on and why he called in on such short notice for this appointment for you. Then the doctor started to ask you a series of questions. 

“What’s your name?” 

You looked over to Hank for permission. Giving you a tired nod, he sat back in his seat and fully retracted himself from you. It was common for many alphas to act territorial to prove a point, in this case openly showing that you were taken and didn’t want to be touched was enough so he decided not to push and cling to you. But, you weren’t together-together it was just for show. Hank couldn’t help but feel a little awkward about that. 

“Y/n.” you said with a small voice. 

“So Y/n, do you or anyone your related to have a history of heart failure or disease?” 

“I-I don’t know.” You said conflicted. It's been too long for you to remember something like that.

“That’s ok. Does any of your family have a history related to cancer?” He continued to write down notes and mark up the paper while he asked more questions that were more confusing and harder to remember the answer to than the last one.

“I don’t think so, sir.”

“Do you have any records of your bloodwork from previous clinics-?”

“What’s bloodwork?” You tilted your head to the side. Hank tried to distract himself from how cute he thought that was. He had to remind himself once again that you weren’t exactly in a position to be in a relationship.

“It’s uhh- when you get blood drawn so we can know what’s wrong with you internally for a lot of different reasons.”

“Oh, I’ve never done that before.”You scooted a little bit closer to Hank, who was still sitting back in his chair thinking.

“When was the last time you went through an estrus?”

“What’s an estrus?” Hanks face turned red when you asked that.

“Um-When was the last time you went into heat?” Hank sat up and wrapped his arm back around you. An act that walked a fine line between protective and outright territorial. You didn’t even realize he did it, it felt casual.

“About four years ago.” Both men in the room stopped breathing for a second.

“Wait- I’m sorry, four years ago?” The doctor asked. Hank looked just as surprised as the doctor did. An omega your age should’ve been going into heat about once a month.

“Yes.” You said completely sure of your answer. “That was when-... When I-...” You started but you couldn’t find the words.That was the first time you went into heat- the first time you met your alpha. The whole world blanked out, you couldn’t think or focus on anything, completely forgetting where you were altogether. Suddenly, the room was smaller than it already was. So suffocating, you felt like there wasn’t enough air to breath. In a blind panic you gripped harder onto Hanks hand. ”Alpha? Where are we?”

The sudden change in demeanor to that poor scared girl he met in that interrogation room Hurt him. It was just like earlier. You had no recollection of the past few hours it looked like. Your eyes were glazed over and tremores wracked your body. Small hands clasped and held onto his, when the doctor started to speak up again.

“Hank What’s going on? ” The doctor asked and set the pen in his hand onto the paper.

“I don’t fucking know, you’re the doctor here.” He snapped. What happened? what was wrong? He was so concerned and he didn’t even know what to do.

“Y/n ? Can you hear me? It looks like she’s having an episode.” The doctor put aside his papers and devoted all his attention to you.

“And?!” You shrank into his side. Angry Alpha pheromones permeated the air in the room, making the situation much worse.

“It looks severe, not uncommon with ptsd. We should wait it out. If we had more people come in here and try to help, that would scare her.” The doctor said a matter of factly.

“Fuck, so your telling me we can’t do anything?!”

“No, I’m saying it's better if you just wait it out. Listen, I’ll write up a prescription that you can have on hand for her so you both can deal with this much easier in the future but for now, it's better if we wait.”

“Fine.” He relented. There really was no use in fighting with a professional, he should probably calm down for your sake. You didn’t need an angry alpha right now, what you needed was for him to calm down.

“We still have a few questions to go, would you mind helping me out with some of the answers for her? I promise it won’t take too long.” The doctor asked.

“Yeah, let’s just get this over with.”

For the next 30 minutes Hank answered the rest of the questions to the best of his ability. It was difficult answering questions when he didn’t have answers while you were trying to hide under his arm but it was important to get everything set up for you. Medical future to getting the needed vitamin supplements and prescriptions for your health, it was important to get what you needed. “Now she could go into heat in the next few months or not. Just, don’t get your hopes up for nothing. All I can do right now is give her prescriptions for painkillers, anxiety medication and some supplements.”

“What’s wrong with her heat?”

“The reason behind her heat stopping for such a long time is probably stress induced or related. It’s not uncommon for that to happen for a couple of months, but years? like I said, don’t get your hopes up. She might never get another heat in her life, and it wouldn’t be too far fetched if she’s infertile altogether.“

“So, we’re done here? Anything else we should know?”

“That should be all for today. If you have any questions just give me a call. Here’s the paperwork for her prescriptions. And remember to keep her off her feet. It's going to take a long time for all that bruising to heal, she shouldn’t strain herself.“

The man handed Hank a few papers and told him about the directions for all your new prescriptions, how for you to take the and sent you both on your way. And finally, this god forsaken doctors appointment was over.

———————————————————


	2. I Don’t understand...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> big dogo

The sun was starting to set, it was getting dark and you both were pretty tired. Too much happened today, too quickly. It wasn’t a surprise you were already falling asleep up against his car door while he drove you home with him. The exhaustion was hitting you after everything.

“You better not be falling asleep on me Y/n.” There was no threat or heat behind it. But he knew if you fell asleep he wouldn’t have the heart to wake you up.

“It’s ok, Sir.” You hiccuped tiredly. “I’m falling asleep on the door.”

“That's not exactly what I meant-“ He argued and was about to explain until he was rudely interrupted.

“I’m just so tired alpha.” You didn’t even notice the title slip past your lips, but he did.

“Kid, you don’t have to call me that.” He said reaching a hand over the back of his neck. To him it still didn’t feel right for you to call him that, not when you didn’t really know the weight of your words.

“But- you’re my alpha...” You yawned, starting to sit up a little bit more. “You’re even taking me home so you can, use me-“

“Look, I don’t have to be your anything…” He didn’t want to think about how your sentence was going to end. It might’ve sounded better under different circumstances but not right now.. He just didn’t want you to see him as this ‘higher power’ to take advantage of you as he pleased. “You’re your own person- you don’t need some old alpha like me to-“

“You don’t want me?” The mortification washed over you. Even your new alpha didn’t want you. Tears were already rushing and ready to spill. 

“No! I mean yes, but not like-“ You were already sobbing before he could finish, already rubbing your eyes roughly with the sweatshirt you were still wearing, effectively soaking the sleeves. 

“I’m sorry- I know I’m not attractive.” You said in between sobs trying to think of something, anything to let you stay with him. Desperately clamoring for any reason for him to keep you, anything was better than a different alpha. “I know I'm a bad omega but, I’ll clean, I can cook...I’m-I’m good with my hands! Or if you’d like- you can use my mouth alpha!”

“Jesus!-“His face flushed and he nearly swerved on the road hearing you talk like that. He could barely keep up with you! One second your falling asleep and the next you’re desperately trying to make sure he wouldn’t leave you, offering yourself up like that. “Calm down, alright!”

He really had to get this under control, he could barely focus on the road. “I’m not sending you away, or anything like that, ok kid? I’m not gonna send you off to some other alpha unless you want me too- So stop getting worked up about it.” He didn’t want to even acknowledge that you were implying for him to use you just to have a place to stay. Both of you would deal with that later just, not while he was driving.

“Ok…” 

Soon, he pulled up to a decently sized house at the end of the block and helped you out of the car. The only thing besides street lights illuminating the house enough for you to see was a white porch light. Fishing his keys out of his pocket, he unlocked the door with ease as let you walk in before himself. It was too dark to see until he turned on the lights. 

When he did, a great big saint bernard came trotting up to greet him at the door. Hank threw the keys he was holding onto the table next to the door and raised his hands to pet him. Unsure of what to do, you backed up behind hank cautiously. 

“Don’t worry, he’s not gonna hurt you.” He patted the dogs head. “Are ya Sumo?”

“I didn’t know you had a dog.” You stated blankly still cowering behind him.

“Yeah, sorry I kinda forgot to warn you ahead of time.” The dog licked his hand and continued to wag his tail excitedly and pawed at his pants. “Sumo, sit.”

“What uh- should I do?” You had never in your life had the luxury of owning a dog. Sure you'd seen them on TV and in movies but that’s all. Seeing a dog in person was new. 

“Well, he shouldn’t give you any problems. He’s a dog. Just let him smell you a little, you can pet him if you want.” Hank started to try to tidy up the living room while you were still fixated on the dog. 

He was still sitting in front of you, looking up at you with big eyes.

Tentatively you reached out your hand for him to sniff. You half expected the worst but your fears were put to rest as the great big dog licked the back of your hand. You slowly you raised your hand to pet his head. He was soft. The dog pushed his head into your hand, clearly pleased with what you were doing then he left to lay on his bed in the living room.

Now that you weren’t so concerned with being dog food you could get a better look at the place. Papers, magazines, empty cups, and bottles were scattered among the kitchen table across the room and a coffee table in the living room. It looked like it hadn’t been well taken care of for weeks if not for over a month. There was a couch, tv, and all kinds of new things.

“Sorry for the mess.”He didn’t exactly plan coming home with a guest. Bringing you home wasn’t in his agenda today so neither was cleaning his house beforehand. “Have a seat on the couch, I’ll make something to eat- or I’ll order something.” 

You would’ve asked to help him clean if he didn’t tell you to sit down. The couch was soft, it had blankets laying over its side and pillows next to each of its armrests. Just sitting down, hearing the heater in the house turn on, and Hank rummaging through the kitchen, you were comfortable. For the first time in years, you were comfortable. Not only that, the whole house smelled like him, only putting you more at ease. 

Hank rummaged through the fridge and a couple cabinets. All of those efforts proved fruitless, he hadn’t been to the store for a while. He’d been running on fumes and alcohol and nothing else. So with little debate he decided to order pizza. God, so much for a warm welcome. He wanted to grab something to drink but, it didn’t take much to understand that you needed him sober.

From the kitchen he looked over to you over at the couch. You were struggling to stay awake, leaning craned against the right side of the couch with your head in your right hand. 

“Here,” He sat down and grabbed one of the blankets from off the couch and wrapped it around you. “I just ordered pizza, it shouldn’t be too long.”

“That's very nice of you alpha.” You moved away from the right to sit thigh to thigh next to him, closing the space between you.

“It’s nothing, you don’t have to worry about it-” He stopped talking and let out a shaky breath as a tired hand ran over his thigh back and forth.

“It means a lot to me, all of this.” Your hand stopped where it was on his upper thigh and it continued to knead the skin through the fabric of his pants. You gradually raised your head to his neck next to his scent gland where his neck met his shoulders, above his right collarbone, sniffing frantically and burying you face into the sensitive skin, finding the heady source of the best thing you’ve smelt in years. Small tentative licks and open mouthed kisses were being landed on the column of his throat without warning.

“What are you ahh- doing?” He put a hand on your shoulder, stopping you from continuing. Having you on him like this was more than unexpected.

“I’m sorry, I was scenting you alpha…” He pushed you away just enough so he could take a breath. He was flustered, breathing heavily and struggling to stay composed. His hand preventing you from going right back to where you were. “Have I made you uncomfortable?” 

The doorbell rang, jaring both of you on the couch. He softly pried you off of him and went to answer the door, leaving you there thinking about your unanswered questions. Not a moment passed and he was back with a box of pizza, setting it on top of the coffee table.

“Hungry?” He asked. The tension from before completely gone.

“Yes,” you smiled and sighed. All you had today was half a sandwich he gave you. It was a long time since you had something like pizza. “I’m very hungry.”

“Yeah, I bet.” He gestured towards you. “ Your all skin and bone. Bet that knot head alpha never fed you enough.”

“I’m not sure.” You looked at yourself confused as he started to open the box. You thought you looked relatively fine. “ This-This isn’t good?”

“Like hell it is...” He handed you a slice of pepperoni pizza while he continued. “ You shouldn’t be able to see your ribs poking out, at all.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.” You looked away abashed and embarrassed. From the other side of the couch he could smell your distress, just like at the precinct.

“Hey,” He said to catch your attention. “It’s alright, how could you know something like that?”

“I-I don’t…” You muttered with an uneven breath as you ate your slice.

“Didn’t you get hungry? Bad stomach aches?” He asked.

“Isn’t that normal?” You looked up at him questionably. Omega stress pheromones were starting to seep into the living room. He didn’t have to look at you to know you were getting uncomfortable with the subject.

“Sometimes, but not for real long periods.”

“Oh…” You didn’t know that either. It was a foreign concept to not have stomach aches. Your previous alpha told you it was normal- but you current alpha was telling you otherwise. The past 4 years struck you awfully, but that had to be normal. right?

“So, Isn’t it normal to?-“ You fiddled with a crumb on your finger with your thumb hoping question would somehow finish itself.

“Normal to what?” He finished his second slice of pizza.

“-To scent my alpha?” With how he started to turn you down earlier you couldn’t help but wonder if you weren’t doing something right. 

“Uh-“ He stifled a cough at the question. “Scenting is usually for couples… It's probably different for you through.”

He didn’t think he was going to have one of the ’talks‘ with you tonight but he never thought beforehand he would be bringing someone like you home with him in the first place.

“How is it different?” 

Despite how tired the both of you were, he explained the broad meanings behind scenting. Sure, while it was a thing couples did it was also done with scared children and their parents. It was a big ‘comfort thing’ as he put it. All of it was much different than how your old alpha explained it. Hank explained it as a more- personal thing, that should have consent on both sides of the equation. Then he went on about different situations and why you wouldn’t go off scenting random people. Every now and then you would pop up a new question about what he was talking about, all in all a very insightful and engaging conversation. It was nice not being afraid to ask a question, and having good answers.

You tried to stay awake, you really did but his voice was so comforting and warm to the ears. On your opposing side of the couch you started to drift off once again. He stopped mid sentence when he looked over to your bony form going limp with your eyes closed. Even with the awkward position you were in, you looked so- so comfortable. However, he didn’t want you sleeping on his couch overnight, you were his guest. 

“Y/n?” He knew he’d feel guilty waking you up, but he would feel even worse if you fell asleep on his couch. “C’mon, wake up…”

You didn’t even stir. 

He raised his voice a little more and shook you lightly and, that didn’t do anything either. Since you didn’t seem scarred and you showed no signs of waking up soon from your heavy sleep, he determined the best thing to do was carry you to the bedroom. 

With little to no effort he scooped you up into his arms bridal style and slowly sauntered you over to the main bedroom of the house. The door was already wide open, revealing unmade sheets and a paper covered nightstand. It wasn’t nice, but it would have to do for tonight. Cleaning could wait until tomorrow.

He took the liberty of laying you down on you back and tucking you in before turning off the lights and went back to the couch to go to sleep himself.

———————————————————

The next morning Hank woke up with sunlight hitting his eyes breaching through the curtains. He sighed and ran a hand over his face, it had to be at least 7:00 in the morning. It took him a second to recollect yesterday and last night, taking you home with him and… everything else. He sat up on the couch.

When his did, his foot brushed something warm on the floor. He half expected it to be Sumo but he was undoubtedly mistaken when he looked down. It was you. In the middle of the night you somehow made your way back over here and fell asleep on his less than ideal carpet. Sumo had also chosen to sleep next to you, close enough to be the thing keeping you warm throughout the night.

Guilt welled up in his chest at the sight of you curled up on your side facing the couch. He didn’t even consider if you had a separation anxiety or something like that. It didn’t really occur to him to ask you while he left you by yourself in his bed.

For the last 4 years, you’d never fallen asleep without your alpha within a very close range. Falling asleep without pillows or blankets on the floor was the last thing he wanted for your first night here, and yet here you were next to him. When he brought you home he wasn't quite sure what to expect but he thought you would like the space and the distance. Putting you in his bed was the best way he could think of doing that, he didn’t believe you would want to be around an alpha especially after what had happened.

Despite what he thought, you had fell asleep on the floor next to him. His pheromones from when he was asleep must’ve helped you a lot through, you were still out like a light. Without thinking about it too much he took the blanket he was using and gently laid it over you.

Maybe that would buy him some time to make breakfast, he mumbled and removed himself from the couch. Unfortunately, his short walk to the kitchen was cut short.

“Alpha?”

Almost as if on cue, you woke up. Sleepily rubbing at your eyes, Hank couldn’t stop his heart flutter at how cute that was. He nearly rounded back around the corner to make sure you were doing ok.

“Hey,” He crooned.”Just go back to sleep, ok? I’m just gonna be in the kitchen making breakfast. You can stay and take the couch too…”

“It’s ok alpha,” you yawned half asleep. “I can make you breakfast-“

“No, don’t worry about it.” He said.

“I can do it alpha-I can…” you yawned again and started to get up.

“Lay on the couch dammit.” He chuckled out. “I’m taking care of you whether you like it or not.”

In your drowsy state he helped you onto the couch. If your alpha wanted you to go back to sleep, you’d do it. He was determined to make your stay as comfortable as possible, and make up for last night the best he could. There was no use to protest against your alpha. No point in arguing, not when your alpha was so insistent.

So that's how the morning skimmed by. You were asleep while he cooked breakfast a few yards away. He had just enough pancake mix for the both of you, with some bacon and eggs to pull the whole thing together. Fixing food for someone besides himself felt good. He enjoyed getting a good meal ready for you. Making sure you were well fed was now on the top of his priority list. 

Instead of eating in the kitchen, he brought breakfast to you. 

“So what are you going to do today, sir?” You asked as you ate away at the pancakes he gave you.

“We have to order a few things for you, we should probably get you some clothes of your own.” It was going to be the best option, he didn’t think you were equipped to deal with the outside world yet. “If it was a weekday I’d be going down to the precinct and fill out paperwork until my hands hurt or at a crime scene.” He sighed.

“Really? What do you do for a living?” 

“I’m a detective.” He said with a full mouth. “Police stuff.”

“Wow, like Sherlock Holmes?” That peaked your interest. You were already impressed with his job. Police work interested you a lot when you were younger. The whole stopping crime idea was just really intriguing, even forensic stuff. 

“Yeah,” A laugh escaped him,”But I’m not that good. My partner on the other hand is just like him.” 

He mentioned his partner, ‘Connor’ who he worked with. An android detective who became deviant not to long after working with him. Of course, you asked what a deviant was and he was happy to explain. Time passed by pretty quickly while you were in that house. Androids had rights now, just like people. He told you a couple stories of cases he had with Connor. He sounded fond of him, and described him in a way that reassured you he was very helpful and friendly. And then Hank asked if you read.

“I used to, it was a long time ago before I-“ You spiral down, remembering when you were sent to live with your alpha. “Before I met him.” You let out a sigh. Half your food was left but your appetite was gone. He wasn’t even here and he was scaring you.

”I don’t think I can eat anymore…”

“Hey, you ok kid?” He took your plate and set it aside, noticing the change of mood. You were doing alright just a few minutes ago, but now he wasn’t so sure.

“I’m alright I guess, maybe I’m full…”

“Well, the doctor said you should take your painkillers with a full meal.” He set the rest of his food next to yours. “Are you sure your full?” He looked down at your left overs doubtfully.

“yes, Sir.”

Reluctantly he took unfinished food back to the kitchen and fetched your prescription and a glass of water. He wanted to make sure you were well fed, with a full stomach before you took the painkillers. It would also be good to get you to a nice healthy weight where you didn’t look like you would faint at anytime soon. He couldn't help but feel bad about you eating only half your food.

“The doctor said these are pretty strong,” He took two small white pills out of the small ocean blue bottle and into his palm, handing you them with the water. “So if you feel like anything’s wrong tell me, alright?”

Sleeping on the floor didn’t help how much you still hurt. There were things you didn’t go over with the doctor, things you choose not to bring up. Hank didn’t know, not yet at least. 

Pretty quickly the medicine started to kick in. He could see you physically relax, you let out a huff of air as you tried to stay upright where you were sitting. This was the first real time you’ve taken painkillers or anything like this, it was overwhelming to lose control. You felt out of it. Really out of it.

“Everything alright? Still hurting?” He asked.

“Can I sit next to you?” You questioned out of nowhere, completely ignoring his concerned questioned altogether. Your sad little eyes looked down at your hands fiddling with each other. “I wanna sit next to you.”

“Sure thing, kid.” You were high as a kite and you just wanted to sit with him. He didn’t have the guts to turn you down. It felt like your body moved on its own to sit flush next to him, and you let out another exhausted huff of air. “You think you can help me get some stuff for you online?”

“I’m not good with technology-“ You started but your eyes became fixated on a stray strand of hair of his.

“Just tell me which stuff you like,” he took out his phone and started to type away. “I’ll take care of it.”

His smile was warm as his arm wrapped around you. With no reluctance you fully relaxed next to him.

“That’s very nice of you alpha.” You lifted your hand to the same strand of silver hair, playing with it in your scrawny hand. “But you shouldn’t spend any money on me… I’m a bad omega.”

“You’re not bad. It’s not a big deal and, you have to have some stuff of your own if your gonna be living here.” He tried to ignore your blatant interest in his hair and how close you were.

You were hesitant to agree, but he was insistent. The interactions went back and forth on for well over an hour. He would show you a picture on his phone of different women wearing different clothes, then ask you if you wanted those clothes. All of the women looked much bigger in comparison to you. Being smaller made you feel insignificant.

“Do you think what she’s wearing is gonna fit me?” You stopped playing with his hair a while ago, now you were drawing incomplete shapes onto him with your index finger. “I’m-I’m so small.”

“They’ve got different sizes-” He was about to go on to explain but, a dark red stain of blood was bleeding through your shirt on the same wrist that was drawing shapes into his chest. You were bleeding right through the sweatshirt he gave you.

“A- alpha?” 

In a blind panic he put set his phone down and wordlessly scooped you up. Rushing you to the bathroom, he set you on top of the closed toilet seat and faced you toward the bathtub. Quickly fishing out an old first aid kit from under the sink, he sat on the side of the tube in front of you.

“Give me your arm.” He demanded while he got out what he needed.

“Yes alpha.” You obeyed right away almost robotically, without a second thought. It was almost scary how quickly you reacted. He hated the idea of another alpha using their voice on you like that, making you do things, fucking using you. That wouldn’t be happening here, he was dead set on protecting you from any other alpha from here on out.

Up close he could see how delicate and petite your hands were compared to his. But lifting your sleeve revealed a deep cut around your wrist, similar to a bracelet.

On the inside of your wrist It looked like the cut was trying to heal over but it was just ripped back open. He thought it might’ve been from you moving too much but, he could’ve been wrong.

“He cuffed me to bed.” You admitted ashamed before he could ask. “There’s another one on my ankle.”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” He barked and rummaged through the box until he found a roll of bandages and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.

“I’m sorry alpha, I-I didn’t want to bother you.” You also admitted. “I was embarrassed...I should’ve told you.”

Unbelievable. He fucking chained you to the bed? Hank felt terrible that he didn’t know you were bleeding until now. He was still panicking a little, the bathroom was such a small room that the smell of an alpha panicking was more than prominent. 

“Alpha?..” You were starting to catch his alarm. “It’s ok.” You crooned and moved closer to him. With your other arm, you rubbed his shoulder and pulled some of his hair out of his face.

“I said you don’t have to call me that.” He sighed. Indistinctly he was aware of you trying to help.

“You’re my alpha right?”

He couldn’t trust himself to respond. Hank never thought that one word would have such an effect on him until you came along. Sure, people had said it in longer term relationships but he didn’t feel anything with the title itself. But when you said it, it sounded like music to his ears whether he would admit it or not. He didn’t want you to have someone as old as him. In his head, he didn’t want you to make a shit choice like him. 

“You’re my favorite alpha,” Maybe if you reassured him he was doing a good job that would calm him down. “You’re taking such good care of me, buying me things, feeding me. I don’t know what I’d do without you-”

He had to look away for a moment, he was starting to blush like a damn school kid. No ones praised him like that.

“You’re bleeding…” He had to remind himself.

“And you’re taking care of me,” You traced strange unreadable shapes into his still busy hand. “doing so well at it too.”

“Which ankle?” He wanted to get as far away from you praising him as possible. If he wasn’t careful he’d start getting a hard on, even worse you would smell an aroused alpha. That situation would be more that unpleasant and unpredictable.

A delicate leg propped itself above his thigh only furthering sedating his panic and waking something else. He knew he shouldn’t be getting off at that simple little action and tried to stay focused at the task at hand. His omega was bleeding, he thought In the back of his mind. He had to take care of you. There wasn’t enough blood to bleed through the sweatpants, but enough to raise concern. Once again, he was ashamed he didn’t notice before.

“Doesn’t it hurt?” He sneered as he worked. He almost forgot you were still a little hopped up on painkillers.

“It’s not too bad.” You sighed.

“Not too bad?” 

“He did a lot of other things.” 

That sentence made him cringe. It really was unbelievable how far this asshole went to fucking hurt you, Hank throught to himself. Here you were bleeding in his bathroom, telling him it wasn’t too bad.

With a steady hand, he cleaned and began to wrap the gauze around your ankle. Following the second wrap you whimpered out like a hurt animal. It felt like a whole new cut was made over the one he was bandaging, you felt a sharp iron hot warmth burn into and over it. Not knowing what was wrong, Hank stopped and looked up at you, checking to see if you were alright before he’d continue.

A small sound echoed in the bathroom and when he looked back down he was horrified. Through the freshly stained bandages, blood was dripping onto the bathroom floor. He couldn’t help but look horrified at the bloody bandages that were soaked and now leaving blood on his hands. A fresh wave of panic fell over him.

“I-It’s o-ok a-alpha…” You tried to calm down. “It’s o-ok.”

Jesus. He was too worried to listen to you. To him, this was the farthest thing from ok. Hank was having such a hard time functioning. It was more than obvious now that he was in fact panicking, clamoring for something so he could focus on patching you up. More blood dripped onto the floor, and he could feel you almost jerk away.

“Shh- you’re d-doing great alpha.” You smiled painfully and tried your best to encourage him.“ C’mon, we’re almost d-done.”

He tried to continue to bandage you, the words echoed in his head.’ You’re doing great alpha. C’mon we’re almost done’. It was unusual to have a patient encourage the doctor doing the surgery instead of it being the other way around. But your alpha was panicking and the first thing you knew you needed to do was calm him down. You hated the smell he was giving off, first time you’ve even had the opportunity to smell him in distress. It was similar to the smell of burnt paper or like a pie that was baked too long and left alone. It was making you more panicked as well.

You wanted your sappy warm smell of scotch and good wood back. All you wanted was for him to feel better because you believed with all your heart that he deserved it. He had already given you so much.

It helped. Sweet soothing encouraging comments with your hand gently massaging his shoulder helped him settle down and finish dressing your ankle. And thankfully, following up with a few extra looser wraps, there was no more blood. There was a faint throbbing like you would have with any other wound but nothing unexpected.

“You had me fuckin worried, you know that?” He returned the bandages and everything else he was using to its place in the first aid kit.

“I’m sorry…”You only realized now that you were still holding onto him with your leg still overlapping his. “It’s just- I didn’t want to trouble you and I just- just-“

“Y/n, your not any trouble.” He removed himself from where he was, very thankful the little distance he had now. He returned the box where it was back under the sink and washed his hands. “I was just- just worried, that’s all.”

Although it was true, he didn’t go into an in depth explanation to how concerned he was. He was scared, scared of you being hurt beyond repair because he just needed you to be ok. He was nervous about fucking up.

”… Thank you alpha.” You sobbed into his back. He tensed up, face going red. Without him hearing you, in a split second you were behind him giving a tight hug. “I’m sorry for worrying you, no alphas ever dressed my wounds.”

“Bath?” He suggested drying his hands over the sink trying to change the subject.

“You’d let me take a bath?” With your newly wrapped bandages it would be difficult to bath without getting them wet. Let alone reaching around to clean yourself too. 

“It might be a bit hard but I’d help you.” He offered.

“Really?” You beamed happily. Your old alpha would’ve never said that, never considered the idea of letting you use the bath to begin with.

“Yeah, I think you could use a bath. You still smell like him. That might be making you stressed, huh?”

“Oh, I didn’t even realize- I’m sorry I-I’ve been all over you.” You suddenly felt so ashamed of spreading your previous alphas scent in his house. That had to have been some sort of violation, you thought to yourself. Perhaps that's why he’s been refusing you altogether.

“It’s ok, kid. You didn't know.” He sat where he was before on the tub, but this time he reached over to the faucet to turn on the water. Checking the temperature, he ran his hand under the water until it was lukewarm before plugging the bottom of the tub. “Isn’t it bothering you through? The smell of him?”

“Sometimes,” you picked at the gauze on your wrist that was freshly wrapped. “It scares me. I never liked how he or my dad smelled. They always made me uneasy, is it weird that I don’t even know why?”

“No. No it’s not weird.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Sometimes you don’t like how other people smell. Me? My sense of smell isn’t as good as it used to be, but I still have to work with people I don’t necessarily like and people who I don't think smell good either.” 

“I like how you smell.” You smiled tilting your head up to look at him. You were straightforward about it, unashamed of something you should have been. Being isolated for so long you didn’t know you were supposed to be ashamed of in the first place.

He felt himself bubbling over. In that moment Hank knew he genuinely enjoyed fussing over you. The whole 180 of having a hard time looking after you was always gonna be worth it if he got to see a smile like that again. 

“You even smell good right now.” The same persistent smile was there when he looked. Why were you so good at making him blush? 

He lost himself for a second too long in that smile, that the bathtub was already full. 

“Do you want me to uh- hold up a towel? Or walk out of the room or-“ He tried to be the gentlemen.

“Why?” You weren't sure what he was getting at. Why would he hold up a towel? “Could you help me? It’s hard to move with the- bruises…”

Surprisingly, you were much less awkward about this than he was.

“Yeah, yeah. Of course.” He was nervous. Very nervous at the idea of hurting you. “Are you sure you don’t want me to hold up a towel or something?” He openly suggested.

“I’m not sure why your insisting on holding up a towel If I need your help.” You replied still confused.

“Privacy?” He asked while he went to get you a towel from his room across the hall. 

“What does this have to do with privacy?” you looked at the hoodie you were wearing and trying to decide how to take it off with hurting yourself.

“Well- your going to be- you know what? forget it.”

He dropped the topic for later, along with the towel on the side of the sink counter. There was something wrong with the way you were so comfortable with being naked in front of someone you didn’t know too well. With someone with low self confidence you sure sounded alright with having him see you.

Carefully helped you ease off the sweatshirt, undressing you revealed fresh bruises and unorganized lacerations on your arms and upper body. On your left arm was where a particularly large bruise was located. Under that and under your breast was the same scrawny rib cage he saw at the precinct. The fucker half beat you black and blue and starved you. Hank felt himself let out a low growl. The thought of the shitty alpha having his hands on you had him fucking growling. Most alphas couldn’t even growl. It looked like someone used you for batting practice and an ashtray.

“Hank?” The growling startled you. Every muscle on you body tensed up and you felt like you needed to shield yourself. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it's just-“ he breathed through his nose harshly. “The bruises…”

What really surprised him through, was that when he looked over your neck. There was no claim mark on either side, almost clean from anything but a couple bruises. He was relieved when he saw no distinct scar or bite mark. He wanted to ask, but he knew this was neither the time or place for that question.

He felt the overwhelming urge to just bite, and claim, and mark when he eyed the skin. He was aware of what he wanted to do and tried to keep his head as far away as possible from you with some distance. Usually he was well in control of that sort of thing but, he couldn’t trust himself right now. Not while you were almost naked in his bathroom.

The bra you were wearing was pink, lacey, but too worn to look good at all. Rips and rivets littered the material so much it was falling apart. He duly noted to make sure to get you some new. In an attempt to get it off you tried to reach behind to unclip it but failed with a short cut yelp.

“You ok?” He steadied you with an arm.

A small lith hand guided his to feel the small clip on the crest of your back. Your other hand held onto his shoulder for some balance. He wasn’t experienced in this area but with some trial and error the bra fell to the floor not too long after he unclipped it.

He tried to look away, but his curiosity had just got the best of him. In a stolen glance he saw your revealed upper body and just had to look again. Regardless of the scars, you were his type. Dark hair, smaller, smooth skin, warm. His face was burning.

“Hank?” 

“Hmm?” He was having a hard time focusing.

“I need help.” You tugged and started to shimmy out of the sweatpants.

“Sorry-“ He got onto a knee and his hands went to the knees of the pants to tug them down further. Following, you’d lift your foot so he could pull the pants off all together. The endless expanse of your leg couldn't help but catch his eyes. Slowly the underwear followed, matching the worn bra on the floor, stained and torn which could only be presumingly from your alpha. 

With some trouble he did his best to help you into the tub without looking at you in some way he shouldn’t. The hard part was avoiding the bandage on your ankle, without much luck it was hanging out of the side of the tub with part of your leg. When he got the towel he also got some rags for you too, hoping it would make washing yourself easier. He grabbed a few different bottles from above you, putting them on the side of the tube within your reach. “Here’s the shampoo and conditioner.”

The water felt hot against your skin in a good way. You couldn’t really remember the last time you had a bath but, all of this was nice. It hurt to move around so much so you laid against the back of the tub with some struggle. His eyes looked at your upper arm. There were these little burns in small circles in repetitive patterns on them. 

“My old alpha’s friend liked to smoke.” You said while still reclining back in the tub and tracing the scarred skin. “He’d put them out here.”

“Assholes.” You only gave a worn smile at the comment he made.

“Do-Do you smoke?” With your hair so outgrown it took a great deal of time and effort to apply it, and even more to get it out. 

“No.” I drink. “Used to though.”

“Ah!” Your hair was lightly yanked with his thumb caught into a tangle near your scalp.

“Sorry, here I’ll just-“ He used his other hand to pull at the stubborn hair wrapping his finger until it loosened. He realized while he was untangling the strand that there were a few clumps of hair that were very matted. “There.”

Both of you struggled to thoroughly wash your hair and finish conditioning it. Since it was out grown and uncut to such a length, it reached the start of your hips. And washing the soap out of your hair up close he could see strands of hair that had turned grey and faded into a much darker color. Poor thing, so stressed you were growing grey hair. It took some while finish bathing but it was well worth it in the end. A good portion of all the injuries you had were just dried blood that caked your skin and to Hank that was a relief. The clean hot water had turned to a murky cold that now felt used and done with. You were completely clean of your alphas scent and all of the loose dirt, grime, and blood that covered you.

It was time to get you out of the bathtub.


	3. Book Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> .-. Lmao Connor picks up the phone

———————————————————

“Oh no, I don't want to get your bed all wet.”

“Don’t worry about it, just sit down will ya?” Hank was in the process of getting you to the bedroom so you could get dressed. Fresh out of the tub, only in an oversized towel, low body fat, you were shivering and dripping droplets of water on the floor. Unfortunately, your clothes weren’t arriving for the next couple hours so you where going to have to wear some more things of his.

Similar to your wardrobe from earlier, he got out some sweatpants and a clean black shirt from the back of his closet. Used but not dirty, comfortable but not new. Last he got an older pair of boxer shorts too small for him, and he knew they were still going to hang really loose on you.

“Thank you for the help, I didn’t think I could get my hair.” You said as you hugged the ends of the towel to your chest. “I loved the bath.”

“Good, because your gonna be able to take plenty of those now.” He smiled and gestured for you to sit on the side of the bed. All he wanted to do was spoil you rotten with things that you’d enjoy.

A shaky smile tugged at your lips. He was much better than any other alpha you met. Baths? Your alpha barley let you take showers and having Hank help you out so much more than you expected. In the back of your mind you knew that this would all turn sour soon. Alphas would never do things like this for you, at least not without taking something else in return. He may have been great but, you felt like he would want to use you after some time here, even if he wasn’t blunt about it.

“The clothes we ordered aren’t coming in for the next couple hours so your just gonna have to wear this for now,” He gave you the clothes for you to inspect. “But I promise when they come in you can change if you want.”

“Thank you!” Your were more than happy to be wearing his things, it made you happy that he trusted you wearing something personal of his.

“You um- smell nice.” He added while you threaded your arm into a sleeve. To him you smelt much like a dessert. Sugary, well baked food, and syrupy.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to lie to me…” A warmth rushed to your face full of embarrassment.

“I’m not lying,” he said through gritted teeth. “Don’t know what your, ‘previous alpha’, told you but he’s wrong.”

It had been too long to tell the difference of what Hank was telling vs what you were told with the last few years. So it wasn’t new for you to disbelieve what he was saying right now to you. 

With some help, you got dressed. All of the clothing was so loose on you, he thought you looked like a sad scarecrow with clothes that didn’t even fit. 

He also was very hell bent on getting all of that shit brushed out of your hair. It must’ve hurt having those mattes in your hair. So he coaxed you to sit down on the couch while he brushed through your hair with a struggle.

The time had read 7:30 PM. Too late to eat lunch and a too early to eat dinner. So he spent the next 5 minutes getting you situated on the couch with a few blankets while he would figure out what you two would be eating for dinner.

Eventually, he chose to buy take out. He knew you’d still enjoy something simple and less expensive and so would he. Another night of ordered food wasn’t going to hurt anyone.

8:15 rolled by and you had eaten an entire box of Chinese take out rice and half a box of fried veggies. Earlier he decided on something easy that you both enjoy( AKA nothing spicy). You weren’t too keen on having your alpha leave you, the daunting idea of another alpha coming wasn’t ideal in any perspective of yours. 

In record time you ate. He made a mental to make something healthier and home cooked for you next time you had dinner. The TV was on and you were sitting next to him on the far right of the couch with the blankets he dropped over you not to long ago were covering you both.

You recollected the morning when he asked you if you read, and you couldn’t help but sigh. He was quick to notice. 

“What’s wrong?” He asked. “Are you still hungry?”

“No, it's just-“ you were unsure if you should finish your train of thought. “Do y-you have any books? I know it’s a silly question…”

“Yeah, I have a couple. Why, you wanna read em’?” He was ready to get up to go dig around for them.

“Oh, I don’t even know if I can…” you started to back down from the idea.

“Course you can, I don’t mind.”

“Hank, I don’t know if I can even still read.” He was already getting up from the couch. Abruptly you were left alone for nothing less than a minute and he came back to sit on the couch were he was. In hand he was holding several books you didn’t recognize. He read the titles and handed you the books to expect.

You lightly set the books on the coffee table next to the rementants of the Chinese food so you could look them over. Out of the stack you saw a darker book that stood out and caught your interest and drew it out from the pile. The book looked old. It had a rustic polaroid photo of a woman with dark hair. There were bold letters on the front and spine of the book you couldn’t make out.

“The Unsolved Case of the Black Dahlia” he read out loud. “That one’s pretty dark.”

“What’s it about?” 

“It’s about her murder.” He said while you traced your fingers over the printed cover photo. “,It’s pretty dark, I’m not sure you’d like it.”

Instead of sitting the book down right on the spot like he expected, you moved to sit where you were before. Hank joined suit so you were close to sitting how you were before he left. You tentatively opened the book to the first page and like you thought, you couldn’t make out the words. The whole page had similarities with letters you couldn’t understand or recognize in strange patterns.

“I can’t read it anyways.” Your short lived courage crumpled up and fell away as you backed down from pursuing the book. “I’m stupid for even thinking-“

“Kid, don’t worry about it.” He coaxed you to settle down. “I don’t have a problem reading to you.”

“Hank,” you sighed again. “That’s very nice of you, but you shouldn’t.”

“Y/n, It's no problem. I’d love to read to you and help you relearn to read.” He sat back and made sure the book was open at the right angle so you could see the words on the page as well. “Besides, I wouldn't have gone into that field if it didn’t interest me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I haven’t read much but paperwork lately. It’ll be nice.”He convinced you to let him read out loud to you.

And read he did. It didn’t matter how dark the story was to him or you. As he read, you were engaged and clearly picking up the English and following along with what was going on. 

Now that you were clean and pretty content, he could smell your scent so fully. The fragrant was sweet, sugary, almost fruity. It was good, he liked it. Then again, you were still very young in comparison with him. It seemed so wrong for him to like your scent.

His voice was nice and soothing you to relax, you were getting a little too tired to focus. Judging from the calming pheromones he was giving off, you knew he was enjoying himself as well.

Chapter three is when you started to doze off. Your head was craned to the side and resting around his shoulder and one of your legs had found its way to sit close to his. He had to admit, it was nice. The closeness of having another person in his house and here on the couch too. He only realized now how much he missed that.

“C’mon, I gotta tidy up the food before we go to bed.” He patted your opposite shoulder and proceeded to get up. Lazily he put the leftovers in the fridge and tried to clean up a little while he had the chance. When he came back, you were already curled up on the couch. “Let’s get you to bed…”

He muttered and scooped you up into his arms facing himself. It wasn’t difficult for him to carry you, let alone lay you down. To him you were still very light and two good meals was nothing close to what you needed.

Your pliant body was laid down onto the soft comforter of the bed and covered with the top blanket. Hank hesitated with laying down, he really didn’t want you to get up to just sleep over next to the couch again. He moved around to the far side of the bed where you weren't lying down and shifted the thick blankets enough so he could lie down as well. Pretty soon, he was drifting off when you caught his attention.

He tensed up as you snuggled closer to his chest under his arm, practically making him envelope you. You were so tired, and he could feel the hot breath leaving your mouth and hitting the side of his chest close to where your head was. He couldn’t bear tearing you off of him and instead just continued to fall asleep with you.

———————————————————

When he woke up the next morning in the empty bed you were out of sight. Next to him, the empty bed held your scent lingering on but you weren’t in the room.

“Y/n?” He got out of bed and made his way to the hallway.

You were in the kitchen turned to the stove making omelets, leftovers and bacon, humming an unfamiliar tune. It looked like you had woken up early, you were still wearing the same clothes from yesterday.

“Y/n?” You looked over your shoulder like a deer in headlights.

“I’m sorry I didn’t wake you up, I-I was making breakfast.” 

“No, you don’t have to do that, you’re still sore.” He fully entered the room, getting out of the hallway completely. “I can take over.”

“It’s alright, I’m happy to take care of my alpha.” You smiled and brought your attention back to the eggs occupying the stove. ”I wanted to make it up to you… You’ve been so nice to me. I’ve gotta pay you back right?”

He didn’t mention how you didn’t have to pay him back and you didn’t mention your paranoia of being forced to pay him back in a different kind of way.

All he did was grumble and let you continue. It might make you upset to refuse you, and it was too early for that. On a different note, he would have to get grocery shopping done today. With this weekend rolling by so quickly you would be left alone in the house with nothing to eat except leftovers take out and he wasn’t going to have any of that.

“Hank?” You asked while he stood next to small kitchen table. “Is there something wrong?… ”

“No- No I was just thinking. I’m going to have to get groceries for this week for you while I’m at work.”

“Oh.” You said disappointed at the idea of him leaving you.“ Well, don’t be gone for too long.”

You set the food in front of him an a clean plate and he didn’t hesitate to take a bite. It didn’t take much to know that the food was really well made and was very impressed with how little you had to work with and he made sure to tell you as much.

As the omega in the household you believed you were more than expected to take care of your alpha, In every way. You just couldn’t wrap your head around the qidea of not doing just that. It made you very happy to know he enjoyed the food you made. 

“Hank,” You said timidly messing with the food on your plate. “What if someone shows up?”

“What?”

“What if someone comes here, finds me- and takes me away?..” You didn’t know what to do if another alpha came barging in here. There was no telling what was possible while he wasn’t around to keep an eye on you. With all you had been through you a right to be paranoid.

“That’s not gonna happen.” He said finishing his food. The idea wasn’t nice and he wasn’t willing to think about it.

“What if he comes looking for me?” You asked panicked. Small tremors bubbled up from your stomach and grew to rack your fingers fiddling with your fork.

“Y/n,” He got up and reached for the cabinet that had your prescriptions. “That’s not gonna happen. No ones going to be coming into this house unless they have a key, or you let them in.”

Reassuring you wasn’t exactly easy. He handed you the white pills and a glass of water for you to take. It was obvious you were nervous about being left alone.

“Look, I’ll get you into bed. You can watch TV or sleep in bed until I get back and I’ll leave when you’re ready ok?”

“Ok, only if you wait with me…” He smiled at the small compromise made. You got up to so you could start cleaning but the medication had already started to settle, your legs couldn’t hold the little weight you had. In less than a second you could feel yourself falling backwards.

“y/n-“Before you could try to get a hold of yourself, Hank already had his arm around you essentially holding you up. You could feel his chest pressing against your back helping you stay upright.

“Sorry, I-“ you made another move to get the dishes.

“No, its fine just leave it. Let’s just get you to bed...” He walked you to the bedroom and left shortly to put everything away. When he did come back, you were already cozily wrapped up in the comforter.

“Dozing off without me, huh?” The door squeaked as it opened.

“Mmm…” By this time your eyes were already closed and your hair was splayed out on the bed in random. Every limb was hiding under the thick blanket and completely concealing your entire body except from your head and parts of your arms holding the blanket. 

He sat next to you on the bed and looked down at you. Just sitting there, looking at you, it really dawned on him how small and frail you were in comparison.. The covers practically dwarfed you like his clothes did. His figure was always towering when he stood next to you.

You were small, it was obvious. And currently you were asleep, giving him the ok to leave. He scribbled down his phone number and where the house phone was in the kitchen before he left, just in case something went wrong.

———————————————————

Luckily, nobody came beside Hank and the delivery android that left the ordered clothing on the doorstep. And to his luck, you were still sleeping when he got back. Over the last few months he forgot how much he hated bringing groceries in by himself. It’d be worth it through, he had to have stuff in the house for you to eat on a regular.

It wasn’t like he was gonna leave you without anything to eat by yourself, he’d never do that. He didn’t get anything fancy. What he got was along the lines of home cooked meals and easy to make stuff. When he was younger he never got around to learning to cook more complex meals so this would have to do.

Eventually he got all the bags inside and put everything away. His eyes roamed the roomed the messy room. He scraped up all the loose papers on the coffee table and set them in the kitchen and tried to make the room a little more presentable. 

The last couple days weren’t easy, and he knew he was unconsciously choosing to cut back on drinking alcohol all together. There was a demanded need for him to be sober because he didn’t want to do something he’d regret around you. Alcohol, him drunk, and you together didn’t sound like a good combination. 

After throwing away several empty cans and bottles, along with several handfuls of old paperwork the room looked almost clean. He made sure to put aside the box of your clothes on the kitchen table so he wouldn’t forget it anywhere and for when you woke up.

Now that you were out of the room when he was alone in the living room he couldn’t help but feel a little irritable. Maybe it was just an alpha thing but he wanted to be sure you were ok, even if that meant bothering you while you were sleeping. Worst case scenario running through his head was that you were bleeding through the gauze.

So he decided to check on you in the bedroom, and when he did, he was relieved to see that was not the case. You were still asleep, a little different than the position he saw when he left you. In your sleep you had moved closer to the side of the bed where he usually slept but that was all. Happy with how you were doing, he decided to start dinner for when you woke up.

———————————————————

It was almost 10:00. He had made Soup and sandwiches, and made sure to remember to make it again because of how much you enjoyed it. Usually he would’ve had the TV on and fallen asleep on the couch with an empty stomach but here he was, reading a book about The Black Dahlia to you.

The house was silent aside from Hanks voice reading through the book in hand and the ambient noise of the TV on in the background. It was a peace you were unfamiliar with but warmly welcomed. Hank didn’t even know he was letting off comforting pheromones into the air and keeping you happy and more than content. 

Having him around you made you feel safe, there was no way around it. Over the course of two days he imprinted on you so much to a point where you where recognizing him as a clearly safe alpha to be around if not the best you’ve ever met. He was trying his hardest to be a good caretaker with what experience he had as a dad, and he was doing remarkably well keeping you in better health than you’ve been in for years.

He wasn’t about to abuse that privilege. Having you trust him was a big deal, and he felt like if he said or did something wrong then the whole situation with you would go to shit. The little thought was steadily held in the back of his mind since you started to trust him at the precinct.

But that was the least of his concerns right now. He was more worried about you freaking out about how gory the book was getting. With how you were, it wasn’t too far fetched for you to have some problems handling a darker themed story. However, he was glad to see it wasn’t bothering you too much. 

“I’m gonna have to go into work tomorrow,” He said tearing his eyes away from the book to look at you. Earlier when you woke up he helped you change into the clothes he ordered. They fit you a whole lot better than anything he had seen you where before. “You think your gonna be ok here alone for a few hours?”

“Oh, I don't know…” You were huddled next to him on the couch. “I’m nervous.”

“You have nothing to be nervous about.” He said as he bent the corner of the page he was on and set in down. “I’ll be home in no time, and we’ll be right back here before you know it.”

“Do you have to go?” You were disappointed that you’d be alone again.

“Kid, I gotta go to work.” He said. “I promise, I won’t be long.”

“Ok,” you fiddled with the hem of the new shirt he had helped you change into. “Just, please come home as soon as you can…”

“Mhm, I will. If you need anything, I left my personal number next to the bed and the house phone is in the kitchen next to the fridge.”

“Hank?”

“Hm?”

“Thank you alpha.” You said genuinely. All he ever did was make you feel safe even if you still had any doubts about the future with him.

“Kid, you really don’t have to call me that…”His face ran red and a hot chill ran up his spine. He wasn’t sure if it was how close you were or just you saying that one simple title.

“But, I want to… You’re my alpha-“

“No,” he fumbled for something to say that wouldn’t make you upset. “I’m not sure either of us would be ready for something like that. I’m just taking care of you until you can get back up on your feet. After that, it’ll be up to you what you want to do.”

“You’re not my alpha?” He felt a pang of guilt. Of course you had to get the wrong idea. 

“Trust me kid, you don’t want me as your alpha.” He said coldly. “There’s plenty of great guys out there.”

“Then, I don't want to trust you.” 

“What?” He was taken back with that answer.

“I-I do want you.” It was harder to avoid stuttering over something you wanted to tell him. You’d thought it was obvious, why didn’t he already know? “Hank, I don’t want anyone else.”

“Y/n I don’t think you’re in your right mind saying that.” He was blushing and quickly turning down what you were telling him. This conversation was turning somewhere he didn’t want to go. You couldn’t be thinking straight saying that, he told himself roughly. Nobody in their right mind could say that. “You haven’t really met anyone else.”

“Is there something wrong with me?” You asked brokenly. His heart was ringing in his ears when you asked that. You were now getting off of him and pulling away. 

“No- There’s nothing wrong with you.” 

“Then, why don’t you want me?” You weren’t angry, you were hurt and heartbroken that he didn’t want to even be your alpha. In your head he was clearly presenting to be your alpha. He was feeding you, taking care of you and all sorts of things. “Is it because of my previous alpha, what he did to me?”

“What? No-“Hank didn’t think he could cringe harder at the question. “This doesn’t have anything to do with that.”

“I d-don’t…”

“C'mon, let's just go to bed,we can deal with this tomorrow.” he got up and made a move to help you but was stunned when you flinched away from him.

“No.” you said stubbornly while still crying.”I’m just some worthless omega in your house, I shouldn’t even be in your bed.” 

“Y/n.” he said warningly.

“Just- Just kick me out, if you don’t want me.”

“You think I’m just gonna kick you out because we aren’t together?” He wasn’t sure where all this anger was coming from you. Everything was alright when he was reading to you not too long ago.

“There’s no point in leading me on is there? So just- oh I don’t know, please get on with it already.” Your voice was becoming horse from being strained. 

“I’m not going to kick you out.”

“Yes you are.” You looked him back in the eyes. He felt you plucking his heart strings almost snapping in tandem with how fast his heart was thumping in his chest. “I’m just some useless bad omega, you don’t even want me-“

“I do want you, I do.” He said back quickly “I want to take care of you but it’s just, I don’t want you to have me as your alpha and regret it.”

He wanted you to be better off without him, but on the other hand he wanted to keep you all to himself. Was it so bad he wanted to be selfish with you? But he couldn’t tell you that. You had to get farther along until he’d trust you to make that decision on your own.

This time when he offered his hand to help you off of the couch you took it. While he walked you to the bedroom you were much more apologetic than when you were just seconds ago. Saying you shouldn’t have disagreed with him to begin with, he said it was normal to argue over things and that you had nothing to be sorry about.

That didn’t prevent you from continuing to apologize until he got you into bed. The aftershock of making your alpha upset only made you feel guilty.

“Do you want me to stay?” he asked sitting on the edge of the bed. “I can go to the couch if you want me to, I don’t mind.”

“Please stay.” It was clear you wanted him to stay in his own bed regardless of you already needing an alpha’s scent to be comfortable enough to fall and stay asleep. “I don’t want to kick you out of your own bed.”

———————————————————

The next morning you woke up with an empty bed and an ache in your stomach. You felt sick and there was no point in moving if Hank wasn’t here. So you just stayed in bed by yourself for a couple hours.

You thought about it. The conversation you had yesterday before bed. Hank didn’t want to be your alpha because he didn’t think it was a good choice for you and that really confused you. He had been doing great with you amazing even.

Considering he was putting in so much effort to take care of you, it was hard to believe he didn’t want anything from you in return. Why did he care so much?

A sharp stabbing pain hit your stomach, like a hunger. You just stayed curled in on yourself and continued to lay where you were. The room felt so empty without Hank. It was painful to have no alpha near you. Your body felt like it needed him close to scent and take care of you, but he wasn’t here. The fact that he wasn’t here made you so overcome with sadness that you could feel yourself tearing up. It went on for a few hours while you just layed there

In hasty attempt to hear his voice you hesitated before calling him. Dragging yourself out of bed and into the kitchen, you found the house phone and went back to bed. You felt guilty for calling but you hoped hearing him would make you at least make you feel better.

There was ringing on the other line after you dialed the number until someone picked it up.

“This is Hank Anderson’s phone,” Fear rose up in your throat. Definitely not Hanks voice. Whoever was on the other end of the line sounded a younger and a lot more straightforward.

“Oh, u-um, is he there?” You stuttered over your shy question. You did not expect someone else to pick up.

“Hank is currently in an investigation across the street.” There was a pause on the line like he was waiting if you were going to say something. With nothing being said he continued. “Would you like to leave a message for him or give the phone to him?”

“C-could you g-give him the phone please?”

“Of course.” In the background you could hear the prominent sound of a car door being opened and shut closed.There was talking on the line in the background as you anxiously waited to hear his voice.

“Hello?” It was more agitated and annoyed more than it was genuine concern. 

“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called...”

“Y/n? What’s wrong?” He felt his shoulders tense up as he instantly caved. When he left his phone number he hadn't expected you to actually call him. “You’re not hurt are you?”

“I don’t feel good, my stomach hurts. When are you coming home? ...I miss you …”

“Soon,” He didn’t want to admit it but, he missed you too. “I’ll be home soon, ok? What’s wrong with your stomach?”

“I’m not sure, it feels like I’m hungry but I just want you to come home…”

“Have you eaten?”

“No alpha, I-I was waiting for you to get back.”

“Don’t wait up for me. There’s plenty of food in the fridge, I want you to get something to eat ASAP alright?”

“Ok.”

The line was silent for a second.

“I miss you Hank…” You repeat once again. It was true. Last night you were so nervous about him leaving you alone in his house. At least you had Sumo to keep you company but that didn’t stop your stomach from aching.

“I miss you too.” He quietly said back. “Make sure you get out of bed to get something to eat ok? If your stomach is still hurts, don't be afraid to call me again.”

“Alright, goodbye Hank…”You said sadly and hung up.

Feeling better was short lived. Hearing him talk had helped for a while but again the sad emptiness of the home came back dreadfully. You tried to escape the silence and made your way to the kitchen. Like he said, the fridge was fully stocked and so were some of the cabinets next to it.

Graciously grabbing enough ingredients, you started to make a sandwich. In the cabinets you found a bag of chips for a side and set them next to you while you went to work. It wasn’t anything special but it was something.

You thought maybe after you ate, the pain in your stomach would go away or subside but you were mistaken. The same aching continued to stab your stomach. And by the looks of it, it wasn’t getting better. You didn’t feel like walking all the way back to the bedroom so you made your way over to the couch.

Sumo must’ve sensed your distress because he quickly went to join you. His tail was still as he hopped up on the couch with you, practically covering you.

“Hi Sumo.” You raised your hand to graze over the soft fur.

He already welcomed you to the household with open arms, or more like open paws. It didn’t seem like he had any problems with having you occupy the house as well.

“You must love Hank a whole lot.” Laying on top of you, he pawed your side and placed his head next to yours on your shoulder. He didn’t have to understand what you said to try to comfort you in Hanks absence. “Me too.”

The weight of the Saint Bernard laying over you was a little uncomfortable, you weren’t willing to move and apparently neither was he. Having the warmth radiating off of him was nice on your stomach ache and the smell of the your alphas scent on the couch lured you to rest even more until Hank got back.


	4. Wellbeing

Hank got home to see you fast asleep on the couch with Sumo. In your sleep, your arm was draped over the big dog twitching over the fur. Sumo’s tail swished lightly as Hank entered the house but he didn’t dare move from where he was on you. Sumo had to have weighed more than a fully grown child and he was laying over you on the couch. From being so apprehensive over him, you seemed to be adjusting well. 

“Good boy.” Hank set his keys on the living rooms coffee table and ran a hand over the dog's head in a slow gentle motion trying to avoid waking you up.

“Hank?” His efforts were fruitless when your head perked up at the smell of him back on the house.

“Hey, I just got back.” He knelt down closer to your eye level on the couch. Your hands rubbed your eyes sleepily. “How’s your stomach doing?”

“I feel better now,” You thought before you answered and played with the warm fur underneath your hand. “It was real bad earlier when you were gone.”

He asked you what you had done while he was gone for the day but was disappointed when you told him you only went to the couch after you ate. You described your day as uneventful and lonely without him, leading him to believe that your stomach ache might’ve had to do with being separated from him.

Hank had a feeling he could jump to conclusions with your stomach pains. In hindsight, he really doubted it was your heat. The description you had didn’t fit a “heat”. It just happened to stop after he got home, only furthering his suspicions that it wasn’t. 

Some omegas after being with an alpha for so long could become sick or even depressed without the pheromones of an alpha nearby. The mental and physical deterioration could damage an omega if they weren’t well taken care of. Different cases were better or worse than others but it could be serious. However, there were solutions for this problem now.

Leaving you alone with the lack of alpha pheromones could be worse than a drug addict withdraws. There were three options for this to get better for you. One, he could quit his job and stay home to comfort you but that wasn’t happening anytime soon. Two, you could build a tolerance overtime but that process alone could take a few weeks or months and he wasn’t too fond of the idea of leaving you to suffer alone in his house. The third option was that he could get these new pricey air freshener things on the market that people proclaimed helped significantly.

Option three wasn’t cheap but it wasn’t too expensive either. It would take a few days for them to come in since they were only available online but it wasn’t going to be anything better. He went over the idea with you, leaving you to believe it was the best option for your stomach aches for the future. With how bad it was earlier the idea was sounding more appealing by the second.

“Never mind, it’s ok, I don’t want it.” Your face paled at the price illuminated on his phones screen. 

“Are you sure? It might take a few days to get here, but it's the best option.”

“You shouldn’t pay that much for me,” You said running your hand through the saint bernards fur. "You shouldn't get it.”

“That’s why you don’t want me to get it?” 

He knew the answer to the question when you didn’t respond. Really, he believed full heartedly that this would be the best option that you needed. After all your hardships with the past years, he wanted you to be comfortable in the house. If he had to pay a little extra for you to be comfortable then he'd do it. It wasn't like he was going to leave you alone in his house to suffer until he got back. 

“Listen, if you need it I’ll be more than happy to buy it for you.” He encouraged. “Whatever’s gonna be better for you while I’m gone is important. The pains could get worse.”

“Oh- I’m not important.” You fiddled with your fingers in your lap looking at them.

Hank couldn’t stop his heart from sinking. The way you said it with a serious voice, like you’ve said it multiple times broke his heart. 

“You are, you’re very important ” You couldn’t believe him. After all the thorough conditioning your alpha put you through you couldn’t just believe him. “Why else would I bring you home and take care of you, huh?”

You didn’t protest because you didn’t understand why he took you home with him in the first place, in fact you didn’t talk back at all. So without asking you a second time, he got you the stupid scented air fresheners that were roughly a hundred dollars. He wanted the best for you until you’d start believing him. He had no problem with spoiling you rotten now or even in the future.

The rest of the day was filled with the familiar routine of him getting together a dinner that would be alright and then reading to you. Not that he was complaining. Likewise with you.

———————————————————

The stomach aches didn’t stop. Everyday you’d call him at least once, maybe twice, and if you didn’t he’d call to make sure you were okay. It was pretty bad considering you didn’t want to do anything until Hank got home. It felt like a hot searing pain in your stomach that made you stay where you were. Then, finally when he'd get home you were exhausted from restlessly moving around where you were laying down.

There were few instances when you’d call crying because of how much it hurt. Over the phone he’d encourage you to get something to eat but, sometimes the aches and pains were too much for you to eat, let alone get up. Every time he got a call with the house phone ID he'd leave the room abruptly and talk to you for 10 minutes or so. He always felt bad for leaving you at home alone with the situation you were in. Much to his relief, later in the week the scenting things came in. 

Essentially, they were alpha scented candles that smelled specifically like the sub gender rather than an individual alpha. Hank wasn’t particularly fond of the aroma. In fact he hated the smell now that the house was covered in an omegas scent. These candles things weren't exactly made for him. They were made for lonely or widowed omegas who usually had a hard time with loss and recovery and coping without their alpha. 

So unfortunately, it wasn’t a super surprising when he didn’t like the smell of another alpha in the house and on you. It made him feel like he had to be closer to you, constantly with you in reach. Another alphas scent in his own home made him feel uneasy. It was silly how much he hated the smell in comparison to you.

“You don’t like how they smell?” You asked him while you were holding the candle in your lap on the couch for your inspection. It was currently in your hands and in your face as you smelt the unlit expensive wax. You traced over an unrecognizable logo intricately placed on the side.

“Not particularly.” You were too focused to notice the fact that he sat closer to you on the couch. Not quite touching you but close enough for it to be unusual for him to initiate something like that. “Do you like it though?”

“I like it,” You looked down at the candle in your lap affectionately. “It reminds me of you but, you shouldn’t have bought it for me.”

“You’re in my house, and I’m taking care of you so I can spoil you if I want, alright?” He ruffled your hair before pulling it away from your face. A casual gesture between just you and him.

“A-Alright.” You gave him an uncertain smile.

The candle itself did its job. While you were alone it brought you the relief you needed and the stomach pains and aches stopped almost all together. The only problem was that when Hank got home everyday it smelled like some other alpha had scent marked the entire house. It smelled like a group of alpha teens came in and got their hormones everywhere. He hated it. A couple days after having them, he was quick to air out the house before it got dark.

"I'm sorry Hank, i didn't know you didn't like the smell that much.." He seemed angry as the smell was being aired out of the house. 

"It's not your fault." He gritted through his teeth as he closed another window. "Just- don't worry about it."

"If you don't like it, maybe I shouldn't use it anymore.." There was reluctance in your voice.

"What? No- look, just keep using it if it makes you feel better while I'm gone." He could see you on the couch, looking like you were going to say something so he got ready to drop the topic.

"Does it- Do you think it smells like another alpha?''

It took him a couple minutes to explain the problem he had to you, and you were quick to ask if that was why he had been much more touchy with you after you had been using them in the house. It was embarrassing how much he didn't realize how he was sitting right next to you on the couch everyday or hugging you suddenly when he saw you when he got home after work. He had started subtly scent marking you when he got home, whether it be by a greeting hug or holding you closer on the couch with him as soon or as close as he could. He hated when you smelled like that dumb candle. 

He followed up with an apology when he knew what he was doing which you were quick to assure him it was alright and that you enjoyed the gestures. Often times it made you feel good knowing that he wasn’t joking around when he said he cared about you, and having him scent mark you solidified that. You hadn't known beforehand that an alpha could be this nice to you. He was spoiling you with affection that you hadn't seen in years.

You liked it so much that sometimes you would request for him to be more touchy with you, and you would start to be just as much back. Returning as many hugs and in more uncommon cases, cuddles, you would be every bit as affectionate back.

But as a whole, over the course of the next few days you got a lot better. The more passionate bruising was healed up and he helped change the bandages a couple times so the cuts were good enough to not need them anymore and be on their own. Your ribs were still a little visible but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was. He had been taking good care of you.

Both your hair and your skin were a lot healthier and softer now that you were being treated so well. He was getting you back to health and your body was more than grateful for it. Recently you had so much more energy and you weren’t in constant physical pain. The relief of having been well fed and medically taken care of had you up and about always doing something on your feet. Cleaning and cooking were things he constantly opposed you doing. But he always found you doing them anyway.

Things were so great that you started picking up reading on your own and making dinner on the regular before he got home. Hank protested against you making him food at first but quickly understood you wanted to do this. You wanted to be moving around. Everything you did was mostly limited to the house and you hadn’t much to do aside from being lazy. So making dinner was something you were actually looking forward to do everyday.

You were getting better.

———————————————————

There was a familiar routine that worked itself into place. The first thing he would see when he got home was you sprawled out on the couch with Sumo or in the kitchen fixing something for dinner. You didn’t sleep in anymore. That's how it was.

So he knew that there was something wrong when he walked into the living room and you were nowhere to be seen. In fact there was no trace of you having got up and came into the room at all. The used candle he’d gotten for you wasn’t moved from the place it was kept under the TV stand, and nothing was moved anywhere in the kitchen.

“Y/n?” He called out your name a couple times and walked around looking for you aimlessly. Maybe you had slept in? Where could you have gone? There isn’t any place you’d go outside of the house without telling him. 

His hopes of you just sleeping in were crushed when he saw the empty bed. The blankets were moved and unmade leaving him to believe you did get up.

“Y/n?” He called your name and trodden through every room in the house. There was no clue to where you had gone. All of his searches throughout the house proved fruitless leading him into a panic. This was the first time he didn’t know where you were and this was bad. 

What if someone had taken you? He checked Cole's old room, under the bed and closet. Then he went back to the bedroom to check the closet again just in case and there you were. The entire closet reaked.

His eyes looked down at the pile of shaking clothing in the corner. A dark skinny silhouette was curled up hidden under a variety of clean and dirty clothes. He must’ve not seen you beforehand because you were practically buried completely.

“Y/n?” 

Under all of the articles of mixed clothing he could see you visibly shaking. Hyperventilating with your legs up to your chest, shivers wracked your body left and right. You shot him the same look when you first met, you looked more terrified than you’d been in weeks. He eyed the situation trying to think of something to do or maybe say to make this better.

“He’s here…” You said in a hushed whisper, afraid of anyone besides him hearing. Under a thick hoodie covering the front of you, it looked like you had seen a ghost. A bad one at that.

“Y/n, there’s nobody here.” He knelt down so he was a little closer so he wasn’t towering over you. Slowly he parted the hangers with clothes dangling over you.“Why are you couped up in the closet?” 

“He’s here..” You shook and tittered. “My old alphas here…He’s looking for me.”

“He isn’t, nobody is here except you and me-“ He was more sure now that this was one of your episode things. Although they were sparse now, he had to help you through two or three severe ones since you started to stay with him. With those ones all he had to do was wait it out with you and try to stay calm close to you. But, this was the first time he had found you hiding hunched over in the back of a closet..

“Alpha… please kill me…” You pleaded meekly looking at your hands on your knees cradled up to your chest. 

“What?..”The request was so sudden, he must’ve heard you wrong.

“If-If you kill me he can’t hurt me.” Not a tear was seen on your face. You weren’t sad about the blatant request, you were the deepest definition of scared.

“Fuckin- no one is going to hurt you. I promise Y/n, there isn’t anyone here.” The weight of the cursing was light and not in a negative connotation. The house was safe, he needed you to believe that to get out of the suffocation small closet. It reminded you of the first time he saw you unconscious in that house you were confined to.

“But, he’s here…” You eyes glanced around him to check the room.”He-He’s going to hurt me..”

“Like I said, I promise there’s no one here in this house but you and me.”

“Could I-Can I just stay here, please alpha?”

“Sorry but I don’t want you here rolling around in these dirty clothes, besides its gonna be really hard on your back.”

“Just a little longer.” You begged.“Please, alp-Hank…” 

“Alright,” He gave in and put his hands up in the air in defeat. “When your ready, you can join me and Sumo in the living room. I’ll go ahead and get dinner ready ok?”

“Okay.”

Over the sink he thought about what you’d said to him. ‘please kill me.’ ‘if you kill me he can't hurt me.’ He only heard things like that with rare cases at the precinct during few interrogations. It just came out of nowhere in the ballpark. After you had been doing so well for so long it was so sudden to see you break the character he knew.

You weren’t alright. The way you looked was heartbreaking, it looked like all the work you both put into getting you better was all gone. And it's not like there was anything inside the house that could’ve set you off. The last few weeks you were dealing with everything in the house well, great even. 

He knew if he thought about it too long dinner would never be made. And Making dinner proved to be a great idea for giving him something to do. It made his hands busy to get something done instead of standing stock still there with an iron grip onto the sink. 

Home cooked chicken soup masked the hefty scent of your pheromones and coaxed you out of hiding. You came out so quietly he didn’t notice you enter the room however long ago, In your arms you clutched one of the used shirts you were hiding with to your chest.

Dinner was done a few minutes ago but he didn’t want to bother you yet. He could hear your footsteps wandering the house, likely checking to make sure you were alone. The paranoia was still in the back of your mind. You must’ve full heartedly believed that another person was in the house if you were walking around for so long.

“Dinner is ready when you are.” He waited for you patiently and tried to make himself look busy.

“Hank, could you please um- hug me?”

“Yeah, yeah of course.” He gently embraced you loosely so if you wanted to get away it wouldn’t be difficult for you to pull away. This was one of your comfort things. “What’s been going on with you lately?”

“I-I was so scared,” you said into his shirt. “I thought he was here. If he found me he’d hurt me so bad I wouldn’t be able to run. He’d beat me until I wouldn’t be able to move. Then he’d- he’d force himself onto me- Ha-..“

Mid sentence still in the hug, Hank had firmly pushed his face into your shoulder and the crook of your neck. Not only was he practically rubbing the skin close to where your scent gland was, he was marking it with his. This was the first time he was marking you so directly. _ An alpha was marking you. your alpha was marking you._

He didn’t know what Had gotten into him. All he knew was that you were upset and he was trying his best to make you feel better. Marking you with his scent wasn’t just casually behavior is was one of those couples things he told you about. His Hair was overlaying yours because of his staggering height and in a different context you’d laugh about it, but he was on your shoulder.. Your sin was m=warm under his face. The feeling of having someone you trusted trying to mark you was unmistakably different than anything related to that awful house. Your heart raced.

Unknowingly of what you were doing, you craned your neck to the side and allowed him to continue. It felt right to trust him. You trusted him.

That was his ok for him to continue. Omegas only did that with an alpha they trusted for months on end. You had only known him for a little over a week or two and you trusted him. He took a deep inhale of you, and he immediately knew it was too much for him. Gently he bared his teeth and grazed the skin. It was nowhere near hard enough to bleed but nonetheless a courting gesture.

“Aahhh!“ 

He stopped immediately. What the fuck was he doing? Now he was hyper aware of the situation in hand. Your lithe hands were grasping the front of the shirt he was wearing deathly tight and you were pressed flush against his chest. 

He couldn’t do this. This was wrong, he shouldn’t have even started to mark you. This wasn’t a thing, you both couldn’t be a thing. What was he gonna do, sleep with an abuse victim? This was you for god sake, the weight of the situation was tenfold.

A rough pull brought back his attention. Your hand was threaded into his hair pulling him down back to where he was. Not understanding what was happening you didn’t want him to stop when it felt so good. You were out of breath and the rush of having him on you was becoming unbearable needed.

“I- I want m-more.” You tugged at the hair breathlessly. All the previous fear from another alpha in the house was all gone. Now there was a different kind of pleading in you voice. “Please mark me alpha.”

He silently retracted himself. The image of your clouded eyes under him wouldn’t leave his mind. He had to get away from those eyes before he fucked up. All he needed to do was get out of here right? Alright, maybe it wouldn’t be that simple but-

“Hank?” The heat died down when you saw how distraught he was, like a hurt dog ready to run.

“I’m- I shouldn’t have-“ He was already jumping to an apology. This shouldn’t have escalated this far. He was an adult who should’ve just handled the situation better. 

“But, I liked it-“

“You don’t know what your saying kid.” He was on the verge of bolting out of here and drive to the nearest bar to drink this out. It was an irresponsible solution that would fail to work but he could do this. If he was around you any longer he didn’t know what he’d do. He couldn’t trust himself to stay.

“Where are you going?” He was already out the door when you asked. 

Your hands traced over the fresh scent marked area of your neck and the memory in your head. The soup on the stove sat untouched where it was left. After he left you didn’t eat. There was no need to eat at the moment if you weren’t hungry.

The recent memory of him towering above you came to mind and you felt the warmth in your chest come back again. The gentle way he brought his teeth covering below the column of your throat with his arms cradling you to him. Your stomach turned and felt funny. It was impossible to place the meaning of why you felt so warm when he was above you with his arms draped loosely around you.

With him leaving so abruptly it left you feeling out of place. All you wanted to do was wait for him to get back so you could apologize for making him uncomfortable. Really, you weren’t even sure what you had done wrong but you just didn’t want him to be upset around you.

So you waited. Unaware of how long it would take for him to get home, and unsure of where he had gone you grabbed a few blankets from the couch and turned the Tv on as you thought about earlier.

———————————————————


End file.
